Overview

For Marceau Riviere it was a case of love at first sight for the African continent, and his collection which was born in the early sixties would become one of the most comprehensive and striking within the field. Through his instinctive approach to artworks, paired with his artistic sensibility, Marceau Rivière has established during a half century of collecting, a group of works which bring together many of the varying stylistic corpora of sub-Saharan Africa.

The artworks from the Ivory Coast – Baule, Dan and Guro, which constitute the basis of his collection, respond to the iconic examples of Fang, Kota and Kongo art as well as many others. Each of these artworks testifies to the individual genius of their sculptors and the institutions that nourished their imagination and conveys the story of their discovery by the West in the early twentieth century.

Reflections of a life of collecting and passion, meetings and friendships with the greatest, research and discovery, the 250 artworks that will be offered in Paris on June 19 recall above all that during the last decades, Marceau Rivière has been one of the most fervent defenders of African Art; an art he has never ceased to promote and share with the greatest number of people.